


Writing in the Margins

by PrecariousSauce



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Headcanon, Poetry, Post-Game, Spoilers - Devil May Cry 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 16:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18123899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrecariousSauce/pseuds/PrecariousSauce
Summary: Nero realizes that the poems aren’t what Vergil wanted him to read.Or; How William Blake introduced Nero to his parents.





	Writing in the Margins

Nero had read William Blake before, and didn't find his poetry particularly impressive. Kyrie had something of a soft spot for him since she’d learned to sing some choral settings of his poems while she was studying in Fortuna’s best and only conservatory, but poetry written before 1950 never gave Nero much of anything.

He really wasn’t sure what he expected to get from opening the book. It started as an obligation, he supposed– he can’t really claim to know his father well, if at all, but he struck him distinctly as the sort of person who wouldn’t give someone a book if they hadn’t intended for them to read it. So an obligation it had been. He would skim it quickly, and close it knowing he’d fulfilled his father’s last wish.

And then he saw the notes.

The first poem in the collection is surrounded on all sides by handwritten notes, scribbled in black and blue inks but all in variations of the same handwriting. It gets close, but no writing ever touches the printed text. There’s no highlighting. Arrows connect pieces of analysis to their relevant passages, and more arrows connect _those_ analyses to later notes that re-examine the previous reading (that are dated down to the minute), and still more arrows connect these second readings to page numbers. Nero flips to those referenced pages and finds more notes, which connect readings of a different poem to the readings he’d just been looking at.

Nero flips through the pages. Nearly every single one has margins as crammed full as the first, dating from just after Eva died to just before his first trip to the Underworld.

It’s in this moment he realizes that the poems aren’t what Vergil left him.

Nero reads well into the night, and learns less about the collected works of William Blake, more about Vergil. For one, his handwriting was far better at eight years old than Nero’s is now. It starts neat and tidy and evolves over the years to become neat, tidy, and _very small_. Nero has to borrow Kyrie’s reading glasses to make out some of the annotations. Vergil doesn’t believe in wasting anything. Some pages Nero has to turn on their side because Vergil jotted something down parallel to the edge of the page, since it was the only space left.

Which is something Nero doesn’t have to guess– Another thing he learns about Vergil is that he fancies himself like a medieval monk, jotting down in pencil alongside his scholarly analyses random complaints he has about whatever happens to be going on at the time. And he’s meticulous enough to date _these,_ too.

Some have to do with the poetry itself– “ _This one is awful. Why is it in here?_ ” (August 14th, 1987, 6:02 PM)

Some have to do with Vergil’s surroundings– “ _The librarian is staring at me again. I’ll have to leave before they come over and start asking stupid questions._ ” (February 29th, 1984, 3:15 PM)

Some are just garden-variety bitching– “ _It’s unreasonably cold tonight. It’s supposed to be Spring. This is ridiculous._ ” (May 1st, 1990, 5:45 PM)

And some…

“ _I wish Mom was here_.” (December 25th, 1985, 5:30 AM)

Some make Nero lean back, set the book down, and stare out the window for a long while.

But nothing captures him so much as one poem, _[The Lilly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lilly)_. Beside the poem is just one word, written in pencil: “ _Leah_.” (March 15th, 1991, 8:01 PM)

In a few more pages Nero finds embedded between two pieces of analysis on  _[The Garden of Love](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Love_\(poem\))_ another comment written in pencil: “ _Apparently this one is Leah’s favorite._ ” (April 20th, 1991, 9:40 PM)

Nero scans the annotations around the poem and starts to see a trend– they’re written in two different colors of ink, black and blue. At the end of each blue annotation is a citation: Leah, followed by a date down to the minute. Nero flips back to the beginning.

He finds more ‘Leah’ analyses, and now that he’s looking for them he knows for certain these have to be someone else’s readings. Vergil is preoccupied with the theology and philosophy of Blake, and with the structure of the poetry. Leah appears to care more for the verse, and for Earthly matters. She brings insight into Blake’s life, his politics, his marriage, his place in the ‘free love’ movement of his time.

In one paragraph, Vergil quotes her directly– “ _I know all of this because I actually read more than treatises on military science from medieval times, unlike a certain someone rolling his eyes at me right now_ ”– and Nero finds himself smiling. He can almost hear her voice.

Vergil’s analyses start to rhyme with hers. Her insights color his. So many of the revised readings date to this period, with citations within them attributed to Leah. And all the while the space around _The Lilly_ stays clean and pure, with only the one annotation in pencil hovering around it.

Nero rereads _The Lilly_ a few more times before he looks for a pen.

He finds a purple one, and writes in a shaking hand, “ _Did you love her?_ ” (Nero; June 24th, 2017, 9:30 PM)

The last Leah annotation is dated to April 30th, 1991. In trying to find more, Nero finds an annotation in pencil near _[The Clod and The Pebble](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clod_and_the_Pebble)_ , the longest one of its kind.

“ _It wouldn’t have worked. I was being foolish. I’m not strong enough, not nearly, not by half. She’s human. She couldn’t protect herself, I would’ve had to protect her, and I’m not strong enough yet. I can’t risk something like Mother or Dante or even Father happening ever again. I can’t risk it. I can’t. Never again._ ” (May 1st, 1991)

Before he can process the implications of that, Nero’s eye is drawn lower down the page. Right underneath it is the only annotation in the entire book made in red ink.

“ _You left because you were scared. You pushed away the only good thing in your life because you were so terrified that something COULD go wrong that you forfeited any and all chance of being able to help if something DID. And something did. Fortuna was decimated. She could be dead. And you weren’t there to protect her. Leah, I’m sorry. I hope, whether it’s in this life or the next, you find it in your heart to forgive me.”_ (V; June 15th, 2017, 4:00 AM)

Nero stares at the entry for a long time.

When Nero comes down to the living room, Kyrie looks up to see his eyes rimmed in red.

His voice is raw and hoarse as he asks, “Kyrie, do we know any survivors from Fortuna named Leah?”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Echoes Bittersweet](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18338546) by [DreamSlippers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamSlippers/pseuds/DreamSlippers)




End file.
